


A Celebration

by alchemystique



Series: Hooks Adventures In Pining [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other, Outlaw Queen - Freeform, hook and robin are bros, robin has the beginnings of a crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-09 03:33:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1140924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemystique/pseuds/alchemystique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hook spends a celebratory night before departing with the Charmings sharing a drink and a story with Robin Hood, a man who is curiously fascinated by the Evil Queen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Celebration

**Author's Note:**

> I stole a bit of pirate lore here. Hornigold was one of the more interesting pirates out there.

**A Celebration**

 

"That is the evil queen? The woman who cast this land into darkness and despair, who froze us all in time for nearly thirty years while the ogres and all manner of hellish beasts claimed our kingdom as their home?"

Hook follows Robin’s gaze across the great room to where his son sits facing Regina on the floor, her legs tucked beneath her as she plays with the delighted little boy.

"The latter was her mother Cora. But yes, that is indeed the evil queen. Daughter to the Queen of Hearts, caster of dark curses, distrustful of all dashing rogues."

Her laugh echoes across to them as Robin’s son says something no doubt adorable, and Hook watches the father’s gaze linger on her a moment too long. It’s become a pattern, really, for Hook to play witness to this budding disaster of a romance, though the man would probably deny it to his grave, and the queen seemed to be oblivious, on the best of days, and positively annoyed by the man’s snark and attention, on the worst.

It’s Charming and Snow’s last night in the palace, and in their honor a great feast had been thrown, and the good food and drink had everyone in high spirits. It wouldn’t last, Hook knew. Charming’s booming laughter and Snow’s soft smiles, the dwarves outlandish singing and even Belle’s merriment, they were all temporary, would be gone come morning, when the reality of their lives set back in, but for tonight the kingdom was not in ruins, the dark clouds to the west weren’t looming, and there was no lost princes or princesses to dampen the mood.

Hook took another swig of his ale, thankful that at least the Crocodile had been well stocked.

"To be fair, I did hold a dagger to her throat, first we met. Before she threw me into a tree."

The man seems to remember it fondly, and gods forgive him but Hook can appreciate that. He’s spent many a night already pondering the shackles at the top of the beanstalk he’d been left to sulk in. “Was talking about me mate,” Hook tells him instead of revealing his decidedly one track mind.

"Did you two…?" He gestures vaguely from Hook to Regina across the hall, and Hook is quick to dispel the notion, nearly spitting his drink across the table in his haste to respond, coughing as he shakes his head.

"Ah. I’d begun to wonder at the luck of any one man to secure the love of three separate, beautiful women, even a man as old as you."

"Three?" Hook had spent many a drunken night with Robin, bemoaning beautiful women and speaking of love and loss, but he’s fairly certain the only woman he’s ever spoken of in any detail is Milah. After everything, her memory hurts the least, and isn’t that bloody wonderful?

Robin seems to sense his discomfort. “My Merry Men, save Mulan and god rest her soul for it, are the biggest gossips you’re likely ever to meet, I fear. Unfortunately for you they do love a tale of the brigand and the princess.”

Hook lingers at his goblet, thinking for a moment of flowing golden locks, of leather jackets and fitted blue trousers, of a bloody harmful right hook, and nearly snorts into his drink.

"She was hardly a princess."

"Well, to ensnare the undying devotion of a centuries old pirate who’s already lost one epic love, I’m sure she was a hell of a woman."

 _Is_ , Hook wants to correct. She _is_ a hell of a woman. But he doesn’t, the wry smile twisting off his face at the thought of her, somewhere out there, happy and healthy with her son, with no recollection at all of anything they’d ever said or done together.

"Seems to me you know a thing or two about second chances at love, mate." His eyes slide to Regina purposefully, before he quirks a brow at the Merry Man.

"Ah, deflection is your weapon of choice for the night."

"And it’s apparently a double edged sword. "

Robin laughs, directing his gaze away from the corner of the room where his son is, and Hook has to hide the knowing look. Even trying to avoid a conversation on his budding interest in the queen, he’s revealed plenty in the trust of leaving the boy to Regina’s unsupervised care.

"Tell me, my friend, when was the last time you played a game of dice?"

—————

Between Killian and Charming, Robin’s lost half a satchel in gold over the course of the night.

For the first time in a good long while he’s enjoying himself, enjoying the company and the laughter and the conversation. He’s in the midst of one of his better pirate stories, in the days before Milah, of ransacking a ship of the Kings fleet just off the coast, when he’d ordered his men to cast the cannons into the depths, had taken all but enough of the stores to get the men back to their kingdom, and had demanded all the navy crews hats for his trouble. As he finishes the tale to the laughter of the table, he can’t help but grasp at the memory of Captain Jones, the bleeding heart pirate who’d known the men he was stealing from were merely soldiers following orders and they’d reach the shore long before any enemy ships could fire on their defenseless vessel. The hats had been a stroke of genius - from then on the Jolly Rodger's appearance was followed by tales of pirates so fearsome and rich they boarded ships just for the fun of it, just because they could.

It was before he’d lost crew to blades and scurvy and the like, when he’d foolishly believed he was a crusader for truth and honesty.

The moment is broken as their attention is drawn to a snore off in the corner of the hall, and they all gaze a little too fondly on the picture of Regina and Roland curled up under a window on one of the loungers, Roland’s soft snores punctuated by a streak of long dark hair billowing across Regina’s forehead with every breath.

She looks young, innocent, for a moment, and Hook wonders if his sleeping visage is afforded the same sense of peace. As Snow shoots a sad smile towards Regina, Hook makes a point to swill another long gulp of ale from the goblet.

Somehow, he doubts his dreams could ever be peaceful enough for that.


End file.
